Elite wheelchair winner Aaron Pike on his nears the Bolder Boulder finish line followed by Ryan Chalmers. <a href="http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/category/sports/"><b>More photos and video.</b></a>

Jeremy Freed raises his arms as he crosses the finish line to win the men's citizens race at the Bolder Boulder. <a href="http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/category/sports/"><b>More photos and video.</b></a>

Runners take off down the opening stretch of the 33rd Bolder Boulder 10k on Monday. <a href="http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/category/sports/"><b>More photos and video.</b></a>

Running in her first ever Bolder Boulder, Denver's Mieszka Laczek-Johnson, 34, pumps her fist after crossing the end line as the 1,000,000th finisher over 33 years of the Bolder Boulder. <a href="http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/category/sports/"><b>More photos and video.</b></a>

Three boys run along side the men's elite racers as they are led early by Kenya's MacDonard Ondara, 18, during the Bolder Boulder 10k on Monday. Ondara finished in fourth place. <a href="http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/category/sports/"><b>More photos and video.</b></a>

BOULDER — The U.S. women’s team of Amy Hastings, Renee Metivier-Baillie and Magdalena Lewy-Boulet had been strategizing for days before today’s Bolder Boulder 10K on how they’d top talented Kenyan and Ethiopian teams.

The plan? Work together, and start the race way more conservatively than last year.

It paid off.

Despite a first place finish from Kenya’s Lineth Chepkurui and second from Ethiopia’s Mamitu Daska — both of whom gapped the rest of the field early in the race — the U.S. women finished second overall as a team, ahead of Kenya and just two points behind Ethiopia. Last year, the team finished third, just barely beating Mexico for the spot.

“I feel like I ran a smart race,” said top American Amy Hastings, who finished in 34 minutes, 19.10 seconds for fourth overall. “It makes it so much more exciting when you’re running for a team because we all had a plan going in together.

Boulder’s James Carney beat out U.S. Olympian Ryan Hall for the top American spot, finishing fifth in 30:16.15. Hall — who ran the marathon for the United State in Beijing in 2008 — finished seventh in 30:29.33.

“I’m just learning to enjoy the ride a little bit more,” said Hall, one of America’s top long distance runners.

“How often do we get to finish in front of this (crowd)? It’s amazing. It’s like the Olympics. What I love about this crowd is that they react to every single person coming across the line. We are just punishing ourselves on the roads, and you get here and it’s a nice breath of air.”

The starting line for this year’s race changed for the first time in the event’s 33-year history, changing a previously downhill first mile to an uphill one.

CSU alum Jeremy Freed wins citizens race

Jeremy Freed spent much of his collegiate running career at Colorado State struggling through injury, so he largely stayed away from racing longer distances like the 10K.

That didn’t matter much Monday at the 33rd Bolder Boulder for Freed, who won the citizen’s race in 30 minutes, 29 seconds after breaking away from a lead pack about a mile and a half into the race.

“I was sitting about third, fourth, fifth,” he said. “I didn’t picture leading that early, but it happened. I thought, ‘Well, this group will probably stay pretty packed for four or five miles of the race.’ But the pace started to slow down, and I took it.”

Freed, originally from Evergreen but now living in Broomfield, graduated from CSU in 2010 with a degree in business, marketing and finance and now works for Newton Running Company doing both retail and marketing.

He last competed in the Bolder Boulder as a sophomore in high school, and so far hasn’t raced much this year. He mainly trains on Boulder’s trails.

“Today to come out here and run healthy for the first time in a long time and get some healthy training in is fantastic,” he said. “I knew I was a talented runner, I just never had the chance to prove it.”

Japan’s Akane Mutazaki the top women’s citizen

Crossing as the first female finisher was Japan’s Akane Mutazaki, 25, who finished in 36:09.80.

“Even though I thought it was going to be tough running at altitude, I had a great time,” Mutazaki said through a translator.

Mutazaki, who trained in Albuquerque for 10 days before the race, said she didn’t expect to win, but hopes her victory will lead to more international races. She started running at age 16, as soon as she graduated high school. She then started racing for a corporate team in Japan.

Collegiates star in wheelchair divisions

In the men’s wheelchair division, Aaron Pike, 25, a student at the University of Illinois, won a close race against his Illini teammate. In the women’s wheelchair, Shirley Reilly, 26, a junior at the University of Arizona, won over Christina Ripp.

The race’s one-millionth finisher is expected to finish around later this morning. The women’s elite race is set to start at 10:40 a.m., and the men’s elite — featuring U.S. Olympic Ryan Hall — will start at 11:11 a.m.

This story will be updated as additional interviews and results are available.

1,000,000th finisher

Race officials knew exactly who they were looking for before the race even started: No. 20,801.

And at 9:22 a.m., 34-year-old Mieszka Laczek-Johnson of Denver crossed the finish line as the race’s one millionth finisher in 58:41.91.

What race officials didn’t know was just how well her story would fit into today’s Memorial Day services and celebration at Folsom Field, the nation’s largest.

Laczek-Johnson, a CU graduate, served in Iraq from 2002-05 in military intelligence before suffering a foot injury that forced her to learn to walk.

Doctors told her she would never run again, but there she was finishing her first Bolder Boulder while wearing the names of eight fellow military members who had lost their lives in Iraq.

Footnotes

More than 54,100 people registered for Monday’s Bolder Boulder and estimates were about 50,500 people finished the race.

… There were no serious medical issues reported during the race.

… The average first-mile pace for all finishers in 2010 was about 11 minutes. After the starting line change, the average first-mile pace time increased to 11:55, nearly a minute slower.

… Starting times for the elite races were delayed 16 minutes after organizers allowed late registrants in the citizens races.

Digital Director of Audience Development for Digital First Media, the parent company of The Denver Post. He is a former senior editor, director of audience development, digital director of sports and social media editor at The Post.

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